Night And Endings

"The Plague of Masters."

When Luang decides to spend the night with Flandry, the background sounds seem to comment:

"Someone laughed like a raucous bird, down in the joyhouse. But the rain was louder, filling all the night with a dark rushing." VII, (p. 62)

Indeed, Luang's attitude to Flandry is at best ambivalent. The text continues:

"Luang did not smile at Flandry. Her mouth held a bitterness he did not quite understand, and she switched off the light as if it were an enemy." (ibid.)

Inviting? No. In Flandry's interests to play along? Definitely.

Myths express cycles and endings. Odin and Thor (see the previous post) will die at the Ragnarok. Poul Anderson's works present major equivalents of Ragnarok:

Hrolf Kraki's Saga;

The King Of Ys (with Karen Anderson);

Tau Zero;

the Long Night.

We value Tau Zero as a literary expression of the myth even though its cosmology is outmoded.